


Zuko is trying his best

by BeatriceOverWall



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Enemies to Friends, LOVE HARRY, M/M, Other, Slow Burn, Who knows what'll happen - Freeform, hate the word lover, him and Katara never worked for me, rlly just doing whatever I feel like so, thats the moral of the story, think Aang will end up with someone different, to boyfriends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:21:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29501226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeatriceOverWall/pseuds/BeatriceOverWall
Summary: Zuko is fighting with the Avatar, as usual, when all of his crew disappears. Including his uncle, and of course, the Avatar. Left alone on his boat, it takes him to a strange island where he just knows the Avatar has taken his uncle. It makes complete sense! A group of small kids kidnapping an old man? Why not! Well, they won't be celebrating for very long; Zuko will catch up and have his revenge...(Zuko has never really been known for his common sense, but he's trying his best.)
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), maybe others - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	1. Not only has Zuko lost the Avatar for the nth time but also...everybody else.

Zuko pushed himself up off of the ground and looked around. It was suspiciously quiet. Usually, when the avatar escaped there would be some chaos, a sign of which direction he had flown off in, a trail of destruction. But there wasn't even a concussed guard in sight, though the kid must have had to fight to get out of his cell. Summoning flame into his palm to light his way down the dimly lit corridor, Zuko kept a fighting stance, ready to attack at a moments notice. Or to dodge an incoming attack. He never knew what he would be dealing with, chasing the avatar. If it wasn't the air bender it was one of his annoying water tribe sidekicks, washing him away with a water wave, or delivering a nasty blow to the head with a boomerang of all things! The first time that had happened, Zuko thought his uncle was using one of his weird metaphors. Then one of his crew had snickered at his approach, and Zuko knew it had to be true. Then the crewmate had lost his eyebrows for his mistake. Banished or not, he was still royalty, and had to be strong if he wanted to command the same respect as his father one day.   
And catching the Avatar was the first step in reclaiming some of that respect...in getting his honor back. Feeling the familiar rage consume him, Zuko kicked one of the nearby cabin doors open, raising a hand to fight, only to see an empty room before him. An angry huff concealed his embarrassment before Zuko continued on, checking each individual room and growing more and more angry and confused at the lack of both Avatar and fire nation guards. Why did he have to contend with such cowards for soldiers, who ran at the first sight of the bald headed brat? And Zuko's uncle, for all his talk of being there for him and supporting him in his search, was nowhere to be seen either.   
A cold breeze flew through the corridor and Zuko swung around, arms outstretched, but there was nothing there. Spirit, he was becoming startled of the air around him now; was there anything left the Avatar hadn't ruined for him?   
At that thought, Zuko froze. No sign of Uncle...Could the Avatar and his gang have taken him, as some kind of hostage? The idea was ridiculous, Uncle Iroh was a soldier, one of the finest of the fire nation once, even if he had since became mellowed with age. But the longer Zuko was forced to stew in silence, and the more of the ship he searched, the larger the idea grew in his head until he could think of nothing else. "Where are you, Uncle?" Zuko muttered. It was unlikely that a group of kids could capture him, but something had to have happened for his uncle to leave him, after everything.   
A small voice in his head, a voice he hated, one that sounded like a despicable mixture of himself as a child and Azula, whispered that maybe Uncle Iroh had simply grown tired of watching him fail, over and over again. Become fed up with having to comfort the failed prince, the disappointment, just a boy without honor, without the Avatar, and thus without even his title of Prince. But most of all, in his heart, he felt worry over what had become of his uncle. Up on the top deck of the ship, Zuko observed the seas, but saw nothing out of the ordinary, no signs of water or air bending. Though something strange was happening to the boat. Even without the men to steer it, the ship was heading straight to land, a mountain in the distance that emerged out of the mist. Zuko would have suspected water bending, but he knew even the talents of the Avatar's girlfriend didn't extend to moving entire ships.   
At least, not yet.   
As he waited for the boat to near shore, Zuko scanned his brain for any clues as to what exactly had happened to his Uncle and crew. The Avatar had escaped from the holding cell, again. Zuko made a note to get a stronger prison put in place the next time round. Then presumably he had flown through the ships lower decks, attacking soldiers and crewmates alike, before bursting to the surface, where Zuko had spotted him, an orange cape floating in the wind, and thrown a ball of fire at him, before getting thrown onto his back by a huge gust of wind that stole all the air from his lungs. It had been, Zuko reflected, the strongest attack by the Avatar yet, and Zuko's quickest defeat. Shame flared up in his stomach, before being chased away by the comforting flare of rage. The Avatar had all the elements at his disposal, yet, like the child he was, he stuck within his comfort zone. Zuko knew for a fact that the Avatar had long since learned to water-bend, yet he hardly ever used it in a fight, making him quite predictable, if a tricky opponent. And his soldiers had told him they had seen him with a known fire-bender, presumably learning another element, but that was another skill he had yet to see the Avatar take full advantage of. It made Zuko angry, like most things tended to do, these days. All that power at his disposal, and he used none of it, didn't even deem fire-bending worthy of using in battle. It was insulting, both that an outsider could just take up a skill he had honed all his life, and that he wouldn't even bother to harness it.  
The ship hit upon the rocky shore, and Zuko, lacking the skills or knowledge on how to properly dock the beast, simply left it to drift off again. From the boat he had seen a town past a large forest that would surely have a means of transport. On the beach, he looked around in the sand, checking for any evidence of either the Avatar or his Uncle's trail; they must have come to this part of land, as he knew of nowhere else close by that they could all have disappeared to so quickly. Sure enough, there were a couple footprints in the sand that had not yet been washed away by the waves. Kneeling down to examine them, Zuko recognized the excitable leaps and bounds of the Avatar, along with the long strides of the non-bender; the ridiculous boy with the boomerang.   
There was no sign of the girls tracks, or his uncles, but that didn't mean anything. It was a source of much agitation in Zuko's life that the air-bender had a pet; a large bison that flew through the air. The Avatar could have ordered the girl to stay up in the skies on the great beast, maybe to keep an eye on his uncle, if they had indeed captured him. The very idea made Zuko kick at the sand in rage, and, though he would never admit it, feel a spike of fear in his heart. "I will find you Uncle. The Avatar will regret it if he harms you in anyway, I promise." He shook a fiery fist up at the sky as he yelled. Then he looked around quickly and nodded his head, glad he had no spectators, before striding resolutely into the dark forest.   



	2. The woods are ugly, dark and creepy and I have promises to keep

The forest was dense and dark and claustrophobic. And there were Reinbears, which kept roaring in his face and cantering off before he could enact his revenge. Still, Zuko pushed on. It was the rage deep in his stomach that had kept him going in his ceaseless chase across the land for the Avatar, and it would help him now too. If it was also concealing his fear for his missing Uncle, then that was just a happy bonus. Zuko's ever present anger was helpful in other ways too. One of the best known ways to strengthen fire-bending was rage, allowing the fire in his palms burn bright enough to burn through the sturdy vines and bushland in his path. It occurred to him, after about an hour of trekking through the forest in this way, that there might have been an easier way around that didn't risk burning the whole forest down around him, but by that time, he had already expended so much energy on this expedition that he would have felt silly to just backtrack out of the woods again. 

Besides, Zuko always faced his problems head on. Even if that meant burning his way right through the forest to the other side. Uncle would have said that was the family stubbornness, Zuko thought. On his father's side, of course. The thought of sharing a trait with his father had always brought a spark of pride to his heart, as well as...something else. "Find the avatar. Find Uncle. Restore honor. Sleep for a week. " Zuko promised himself, sweating from the effort of burning away yet another sticky vine, the annoying plants which had a habit of catching a hold of his tied up hair and getting him stuck in place.  
There were a lot of plants in this forest he had never came across before, which was slightly odd, given he had chased the Avatar through the richest parts of the continent. Uncle Iroh made a point of teaching him facts about every piece of flora and fauna they passed, which Zuko assumed was part of his strange admiration for earth-benders, of how Ba Sing Se stayed upright despite all the armies efforts. "He'll be okay...he better be." Zuko murmured. 

The sun had long since gone down, adding some strain to Zuko's fire-bending. The flame was getting weaker and weaker each time he used it, and he knew that soon he would have to rest until sunlight. The very thought sent anger crackling through him, and he directed it out through a stronger flame, that burnt a scorching path through the weeds. Uncle Iroh could be in trouble, there was no time to waste. Especially if the Avatar had gotten him somehow..."Urgh! This is ridiculous! Azula could..." He winced at his own words. They weren't his own, not really, he knew that. They were his fathers. "Azula could keep her fire going long past sunset. Your strength dies with the daylight. Speak to me again when you have improved." 

And in all his time away, Zuko hadn't improved. He was the same powerless idiot that couldn't even capture a twelve year old kid!  
Zuko groaned and fell to the ground with a huff. The Avatar. Power handed to him without him doing anything at all to earn it. The power to master all the elements, and the only one Zuko had ever seen him use was air-bending! And he knew for a fact that the kid had learned water-bending already; how could he not have, hanging around with that stuck-up watertribe girl?  
But he only ever used air. A crutch, something he was familiar with, that reminded him of home. Such a little kid, and Zuko still couldn't catch him? But there was good that came out of the Avatar being a child; it meant that if they did have his Uncle, they would be too scared or inexperienced to harm him, would probably just keep him hostage until Zuko came to collect him. Maybe his Uncle could even talk his way out of it like he usually did in difficult situations. 

But Zuko couldn't depend on that. Couldn't depend on him, or anybody. He would save his Uncle, capture the Avatar and finally be able to go back home and be who he was meant to be. "And stop having to wander through all these stupid, annoying, foul-smelling forests!" Zuko yelled, punctuating every word with a kick at the ground. He was silent for a moment, fuming, when he heard a sound. Rustling, a twig snapping, someone trying to be quiet but failing miserably. Making a conscious effort to relax himself, Zuko leaned back against a nearby tree and closed his eyes so he could only just see what was happening around him. Whoever was watching him, they weren't military trained. Or trained in any way, really. If they were hunters, they'd already scared away half the game in the forest, and if they were rebels or assassins, he wouldn't have even heard them coming until it was too late. And obviously it wasn't the Avatar. Zuko had been chasing him for so long, he knew the exact sound the air-bender's steps made, and could probably pick him out, blindly, from a crowd. 

Observing from his barely opened eyes showed him that there was more than one person. One face peeked out of the bushes; a boy, in his teens. Probably fifteen or sixteen. Then, he was shoved aside, and his face was replaced with a girl's, of the same age. Two of them. And they didn't seem like they meant him harm, though Zuko was too used to betrayal to make assumptions. What should he do? He was in no shape for a fight; hadn't thought to bring a blade with him, which was a stupid oversight, of course. And his fire-bending was too weak by now to do more than make any attackers feel pleasantly warm. But maybe he wouldn't have to fight them; maybe he could even use them to find the Avatar...

"I don't appreciate being followed. Come out and I won't hurt you." It was a thinly veiled threat, but it seemed to work. The two teens tumbled out of the bushes, wise enough to look apologetic at least. "Why are you following me." Zuko asked, straight to the point. The girl looked down at her feet when she replied. "Looked like you knew where you were going. Thought you could help us get out. We got lost in here. I'm Tali and this is Oko. He doesn't talk, but Ma says I talk enough for the both of us- could we come with you?" Zuko groaned, had known that was coming from the moment the girl opened her mouth. It was strange though, despite clearly being teenagers, they talked like children. And their clothes were made out of stray leaves, haphazardly thrown together as if they had lived here for a long time. How could they be lost? Surely even an idiot, wandering through the woods for long enough, would happen across the way out by mistake? 

Ignoring the girl's question, Zuko asked one of his own. "Have you seen a bald kid? Or an old man with a big smile? " The two teenagers shook their heads in unison and Zuko sighed. It had been too much to hope for an easy solution. "Right then." He nodded, and made to continue deeper into the forest. "Wait! We could help you-find the people you're looking for I mean. We've been here a few days, we know what the plants do and stuff. There's dangerous things here, if you don't know where to look." Zuko spun around, eyes narrowed, trying to catch whether she was lying or not. He didn't see any trace of deception on her face, or her companions, though the way he was staring at Zuko's face made him wish he could let his hair down to cover his...punishment. If he got incapacitated by something in these woods, Uncle Iroh would be left to fend for himself, and the Avatar would get away..."Fine. But I'm not making any more stops. I'm in a hurry." 

They walked along behind him, whispering to each other while Zuko cleared the path ahead. It was slow getting anywhere in the forest, like moving through treacle. If it wasn't a wall of plants in your path, the floor would suck at your boots and attempt to pull you down, which slowed proceedings considerably. Zuko only became aware of how long he had been moving this time when he saw the sun shining through a gap in the trees. It lifted his spirits, and made him renew his efforts. Maybe the sunlight meant that they were nearing the tree line and he could finally search for that village he had seen on the ship. With the sunlight also came the strength of his bending, and he smirked into the light. When he found the Avatar, he would be a force to be reckoned with, and this time, he would not escape. 

Getting closer and closer to the light, Zuko started humming, then singing, without really noticing. "Let the flame burn, crackle and peel, blacken and wilt, like the flowers of spring. Soon, your wounds will heal, with the peace the Avatar brings~" Of course, as soon as he noticed what he had been singing he cursed to himself and quieted down immediately. It was a song he had heard the servants in the palace sing, very quietly from time to time. It was a rebel song, a sign of support for the Avatar. The only reason he still remembered it was because it sounded like a lullaby, and wormed its way into his head. "...what was that song? It was lovely. I like to sing too, but I'm not very good at it, I sound like a hengoose and ma says-""Shh." Zuko commanded. 

There was something up ahead. Something that hissed and spit and cast nasty long spiraled shadows against the trees. Immediately, Zuko got into his fighting stance, flame lighting up his palms. "What is that thing?" He whispered to Tali, who seemed rooted to the spot. "Tali? What is it? Answer me." Zuko ordered, eyes never straying from the swaying thing amongst the trees. "It's...we called her Cirrus. Because-" The tail of the shadowy...thing, lashed out at them suddenly, and a great bolt of lightening came towards them. Zuko believed he got the idea, and against his better nature, he grabbed both Tali and Oko and jumped out of the way of the blast. 

Azula would know how to redirect the lightening...That small voice murmured, even as Zuko rolled back onto his feet and raced towards the creature throwing balls of fire and kicking waves of flame towards it, all of which seemed to dissipate in the sparkling aura of the beast. There was a funnel of air around it that extinguished any fire that tried to harm it, a technique Zuko recognized all too well from the Avatar. It looked like Cirrus could only create the funnel when she was expecting the attack, so Zuko would have to time his movement perfectly, and wait for the exact time to strike-Tali and Oko, assuming he was in danger, as he stared up at the creature, waiting, both rushed in with loud yells. They pelted the creature with rocks, which of course did nothing, and only succeeded in drawing it's attention to them. This was the distraction Zuko needed. 

But...if he took this opportunity there was a big chance one of the kids would get hurt before the creature was downed. Zuko only had a small time to act, and if he didn't do something soon, he'd have to content himself with doing nothing, which had never been his style. Trusting his gut, rather than the cold voice inside his head, Zuko ran to the teenager's defense, shooting firebolts that glanced off of the creature's shield as he yelled at the kids. "Go away! You're in the way!" 

They seemed to take this as a license to be even more in the way, because then they started taunting the thing, making it angrier. "Will you shut-" Distracted by their stupidity, Zuko didn't notice one of Cirrus's limbs wrapping around his leg and pulling him up into the sky. Even the touch of the beast sent lightening bolts up and down Zuko's body, and if he had had to suffer it for any longer he would have been fried completely. 

But something happened. There was a high pitched yell from below him. The sound of something whooshing through the air, and a very familiar feeling of annoyance. Then the creature's grip on him loosened just enough for him to jolt his way out of it and collapse, shaking and convulsing onto the ground. He was electrified, and was barely able to control his movements, but somehow he held himself up in a sitting position, to see that something was flying back around through the air, away from the wailing beast, right towards his head. It was going to hit him, and he was shaking too much to move. And the worst part was; he recognized that stupid glorified toy anywhere. White and blue and irritating all over it flew right at his face...only to be caught, inches before hitting his nose. 

Shaking, from the lightening and nothing else, of course, Zuko looked up at his "Savior" with a pained grimace. There was a loud smirk on Sokka's face, that quickly disappeared when he realized just who he had saved. "Really? Out of everyone in the world I could have saved it had to be...Flameo hot man?! I can't believe it- your stalking is incredible- you're able to find us when we don't even know where we are-" Zuko struggled to his feet, fighting the urge to vomit. 

"And by the way-" "...of course...It's you..." Zuko walked up close to the obnoxious non-bender. They both spoke at the same time. "Give me back my uncle-""-sister!" They both stared at each other, confused. "...what?" Zuko wondered, before his eyes rolled up into his skull and he collapsed right into Sokka's arms.


End file.
